<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<title>Lay My Demons to Rest by TheLostSister</title>
<style type="text/css">

body { background-color: #ffffff; }
.CI {
text-align:center;
margin-top:0px;
margin-bottom:0px;
padding:0px;
}
.center   {text-align: center;}
.cover    {text-align: center;}
.full     {width: 100%; }
.quarter  {width: 25%; }
.smcap    {font-variant: small-caps;}
.u        {text-decoration: underline;}
.bold     {font-weight: bold;}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27313708">Lay My Demons to Rest</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheLostSister/pseuds/TheLostSister'>TheLostSister</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Stranger Things (TV 2016)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Friday the 13th, Hop being a dad</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-10-31</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-10-31</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 20:53:48</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Not Rated</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>4,110</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27313708</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheLostSister/pseuds/TheLostSister</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Friday the 13th, 1984<br/>Against his better judgement, Hopper decides to let El watch a horror movie.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Eleven | Jane Hopper &amp; Jim "Chief" Hopper</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>6</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>28</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Lay My Demons to Rest</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>5:30 pm Friday, April 13<sup>th</sup></p><p>
  <em>Knock, knock. Knock. Knock, knock, kn-</em>
</p><p>The door flew open under Hopper’s hands not even having finished the third knock. El was standing just inside the door already, her eyes expectantly searching. She smiled when she saw the VHS tapes tucked under his arm. She pulled the boxes from his hands and had found a spot on the floor in front of the VCR before Hopper even had a chance to close the door.</p><p>“Hey, kid, slow down. Dinner first,” he reminded her, though he couldn’t help but chuckle at her excitement.</p><p>“You got them all?!” she smiled, spreading out the three VHS boxes on the floor.</p><p>“Yes. I had to pull some strings down at the video store. Turns out, these are in hot demand right now,” Hop explained. </p><p>El squinted her eyes at him, and he realized there were multiple things that need further explaining for her to understand those phrases, though she didn’t bother asking him to elaborate.</p><p>“Uh, anyway, we need to eat dinner first.”</p><p>El nodded and quickly popped up from the floor to find her spot at the dinner table. She impatiently waited with a few audibly loud sighs while Hopper changed out of his work uniform and grabbed a beer. He pulled his chair out from the table and before he could even sit down, El had already began eating.</p><p>This evening was a very exciting one her for; the fourth <em>Friday the 13<sup>th</sup></em> movie came out in theaters today, and after seeing an incessant amount of hyped up commercials and some back and forth on Hop’s part, he finally decided to give in to El’s weeks’ worth of pestering and rented the first three installments of the series. He had to give some kudos to the marketing team for making a 12 year old kid who truly has next to no knowledge of current pop culture, apparently desperately need to see the movie.</p><p>El almost comically scarfed down her dinner in record time, even eating all the beets that he knew she despised because <em>they taste like dirt.</em> Surprisingly, Hop didn’t need to use the bag of candy and snacks that he had abandoned on the floor next to the front door as bribing leverage; she hadn’t even noticed it.</p><p>El cleared her plate from the table and sat back down, eyeing Hopper, her eyes functioning like little lasers while she waited for him to finish.</p><p>“Why don’t you go change into your pajamas a little early, okay?” he suggested instead.</p><p>El nodded and hurried to her bedroom, only to resume her spot at the table redressed in her pjs in under a minute. She looked to Hopper’s plate and back to him with a sigh. He stopped mid-bite and laughed.</p><p>“What, you want me to eat a little faster?”</p><p>An emphatic nod.</p><p>As much as Hopper would have liked to sit and relax at the dinner table, he collected the leftover food on his plate into a few large bites and quickly finished up, much to El’s satisfaction. She removed the fork from his hand before he could even set it down and brought it, along with his plate, over to the sink.</p><p>“We can watch now?” El asked, standing next to his chair.</p><p>“Yeah, yeah, we can watch it now.”</p><p>El turned to run into the living room, but before she could get too far, Hopper reached out and caught her by her shoulder.</p><p>“But kid, listen. I understand you are excited and all. I just want you to remember what we talked about yesterday. These are only movies with actors. And if it gets too scary or whatever, I can-”</p><p>“I <em>know</em>. It’s just pretend,” she interrupted, repeating what he had told her about movies and television a few times before. “And I won’t get too scared,” she added with an edge of defiance.</p><p>“Okay, okay,” he laughed at her hint of annoyance that seeped through, somehow sounding like a proper teenager. “Go on then. Make sure that the tape is rewound all the way to the beginning before you push play,” he called from across the room while he grabbed a second beer from the fridge.</p><p>Hopper had to admit that El’s excitement over a simple movie was a little bit adorable. Unfortunately, he understood that she didn’t really have much to look forward to these days. So if something as simple as watching a movie that the tv tells her that “everyone” was watching, helped her feel a little more like a normal kid, then it was a simple compromise for him, despite the subject matter.  </p><p>Hopper joined her on the couch, laughing at how big her eyes got when she saw the bag of candy he brought over with him. She was so engrossed in what was happening on the tv that she wasn’t even paying attention to the candies she was unwrapping. That is, until she pulled out a Mounds and quickly learned of her apparent dislike for coconut.</p><p>“Yuck,” she complained, sprinting towards the trash can to spit it out.</p><p>“Not a coconut fan, huh” he chuckled.</p><p>“Yuck,” she repeated when she sat back down next to him, reaching for her glass of chocolate milk to get rid of the taste. She checked the wrapper to see what horrid candy that was and made sure to not eat any more that looked like that for the rest of the night.</p><p>Halfway through the first movie, Hopper realized that maybe it wasn’t the horror he should have been concerned about but the sex and nudity. He had watched the first movie years ago when it originally came out, but he didn’t recall it having <em>so much sex</em> in it. However, it was only awkward for him as he waited for the questions from the surely curious preteen to roll in, though surprisingly, they never did.</p><p>El watched each movie fearlessly, only occasionally wrinkling her nose at some of the gore. It seemed like the blood and deaths didn’t bother her much, which was actually pretty upsetting when Hop took a moment to think about why that might be.</p><p>The only scene to truly startle her was an unexpected jump scare at the end of the first movie. She slid over just a little bit closer to Hopper on the couch, close enough that her arms and legs were pressed against his. He put his arm up on the back of the couch around her, but otherwise pretended not to notice.  </p><p>By the third movie, he was growing rather tired and bored of watching the same plot line play out over and over. He took a break to go to the bathroom and grab another beer. When he came back, he noticed the ridiculous amount of empty candy wrappers. They both may have over done it with the snacks just a little. He sat back down and moved the candy bag out of their immediate reach to the end table instead.</p><p>“I think we’ve had enough for tonight,” he told her when she looked to him in question. Surprisingly, she didn’t even complain.</p><p>When their movie marathon finally finished, El sat silently staring at the tv for a few minutes until the credits were finished, and Hopper announced that it was officially time for her to go to bed. It was already well past her bedtime.</p><p>“But he is not dead?” El finally asked.  </p><p>“Who, Jason?”</p><p>She nodded.</p><p>“No, I guess somehow he’s not. But it’s going be a little while before we can rent the new movie.”</p><p>“How?”</p><p>“Hmm?” Hopper asked, distracted cleaning up their wasteland of empty candy wrappers.</p><p>“How is he alive? We saw him at the end and he was gone. Dead,” she corrected, following behind him. It was a loaded question that Hopper would not realize until later that night.</p><p>“The beauty of cinema,” he shrugged, throwing their trash in the garbage can. “The people who make movies can do whatever they want in order to make a few bucks.”</p><p>El pulled her eyebrows together in question but didn’t say anything more.</p><p>Hopper glanced at the clock and saw that it was near midnight.</p><p>“Go on and brush your teeth. It’s late and you gotta get to bed.”</p><p>Hopper was actually pretty tired too. He stood in the kitchen and finished the last of his beer. When El reappeared, Hopper followed her into her bedroom and helped her climb into bed, tucking the blankets around her.</p><p>“Can you read?” El asked, holding up <em>The Phantom Tollbooth </em>book that sat on her nightstand.</p><p>“Not tonight. It’s pretty late. Maybe tomorrow,” he excused.</p><p>“Not tired,” she shrugged, continuing to hold out the book for him as if that had settled that discussion.</p><p>Hopper realized that El probably needed something to clear her mind of the past several hours of non-stop blood, gore, and sugar overload before feeling tired enough to sleep, so he offered, “Tell you what. I’ll let you keep your light on to read for a little bit, but no more than one chapter. Got it?”</p><p>She nodded, pleased with the compromise and settled back into her pillows with the book.</p><p>As their time together progressed over the past several months, El’s reading skills had come a very long way. Hopper felt less inclined to read to her, though she still occasionally asked him to, usually when she was too sleepy or if she was trying to manipulate him into staying up past bedtime. Tonight seemed like a combination of both.</p><p>“Night kid,” he told her, leaving her door slightly ajar.</p><p>He turned off the rest of the lights in the cabin, and though he planned to check on her in 15 minutes, he quickly fell asleep.</p><p>El read one chapter of the book, and before she turned her light off, she peeked out of her room to tell Hopper she was going to bed. When she saw that he was already asleep, she considered staying up a little longer. However, she didn’t want Hopper to wake up and be upset with her, so she kept her promise and turned her lights off, eventually drifting off to a restless sleep.</p><p>Around 3 AM Hopper felt someone tugging at his arm. He groaned and opened his eyes to find El standing next to his bed, her tiny hand gripping his bicep roughly shaking him.</p><p>“Hopper, please wake up,” she called, the frantic tone of her voice instantly shaking him from a deep sleep.</p><p>“What, what is it kid?” He noticed that all the lights in the house were on.</p><p>“My bedroom,” she cried, pointing to her doorway. “There’s someone in my bedroom.”</p><p>Within seconds, Hopper was out of bed with a pistol at his side, his heart hammering at what felt like 220 beats a minute.</p><p>There was no one immediately visible, but he thoroughly inspected her entire room to be sure.</p><p>He pushed her curtains back and found that her windows were still closed and locked. There was nothing out of place. He reentered the living room and glanced at the front door, taking a quick inventory of the other windows too. Also all still locked.</p><p>“El, I think you were just dreaming,” he realized with a relieved sigh.</p><p>She adamantly shook her head. “He- he had that thing on his face, but it- it was him,” she insisted.</p><p>Hopper sat down next to her on his bed and like a magnet, she was pressed at his side.</p><p>“Remember what we talked about earlier? Jason isn’t real, and the movies are all just pretend. It was only a bad dream,” he sighed, still coming down from his own adrenaline high.</p><p>“But he- he was really there,” she hiccupped adamantly. “I felt him too. I was sleeping, and he tapped my shoulder for real, and I opened my eyes and he was standing there in my bedroom,” she sobbed.</p><p>Had he not been thinking about trying to calm the kid down, he would have praised her for such a long sentence. It wasn’t that El didn’t know how to put together full sentences, it was just that silence and observation always seemed to naturally come much easier for her. He spent nearly their whole first month together trying to coax out more than a few words at a time.</p><p>“I just searched your whole bedroom, and there’s no one there, alright? I promise.”</p><p>“Did you look under the bed?” she worried, even though Hopper <em>promised. </em>“What if he’s under the bed just like in-“ Her eyes went wide and she suddenly leaped up off Hopper’s bed too, probably imagining that she was about to be stabbed right through the mattress just like she saw in the movies.</p><p>Hopper followed behind in attempt to calm her down.</p><p>“No, there’s no one under-“ he started to say, just as his mattress flew up off the bedframe, plastering itself against the wall so that she could see underneath it.</p><p>“El, <em>Jesus,</em>” he gasped in surprise.</p><p>He was about to reprimand her for using her powers, but the poor kid was damn near hyperventilating in the middle of the room, clearly terrified. Despite never having provided much more than a few comforting pats here and there, Hopper said nothing more and instead, gently collected the kid in his arms.</p><p>Hearing her cry like this was difficult. It made it nearly impossible to ignore the feelings that have crept in over the past several months, the reality that he may actually <em>really </em>care about this little girl.</p><p>He wrapped both arms around her, carefully pulling her towards him, her trembling form stiff and unsure about the close physical contact at first. However, it only took a few moments for her guard to break down.</p><p>She was terrified and being close to Hopper made that feeling sort of go away. Once El realized this, she took a small step closer and let out a heartbreaking sob, her body going limp against him.</p><p>“Okay, it’s okay,” he sighed softly, holding her up so that she didn’t collapse.</p><p>He directed her to the couch and sat down with her on his knee, though she turned towards him and nearly tried to disappear against him. She’d never been this vulnerable around him before.</p><p>“It’s okay, kid. Shh,” he attempted to soothe. El was crying so hard her whole body shook with each sob. “No one’s going to hurt you here. I got you,” he promised rocking her back and forth slowly. It was strange how he could go for years without needing to tap into this side of his personality, and yet, it came back so quickly and naturally.</p><p>It took a little while, but eventually El calmed down enough to get her breathing under control.</p><p>“I’m sor- sorry I woke you up,” she sniffled, a hint of shame in her tone.</p><p>“No big deal,” Hopper promised, pulling her away slightly to make eye contact.</p><p>She avoided him and timidly looked to his lap instead. He tightened his arms around her again, and she wiped her cheek with one hand, nestling back against his chest.</p><p>“I know having a dream that felt so real must have been very scary. Even I would have been scared by something like that.”</p><p>El considered this for a moment. She couldn’t picture Hopper being scared of anything, especially not a dream. But she knew that he wouldn’t lie to her, so maybe grown ups really did get scared of bad dreams too.</p><p>“But I promise, it was all just in your imagination,” Hopper continued. “And our imaginations are pretty cool. Because you know what else you can do with your imagination?”</p><p>She shook her head no, and he went on.</p><p>“Next time you see that guy in your room or when you close your eyes, you can pretend that he’s wearing a fluffy blue dress. And instead of a mask, he has pink flowery underpants over his face with two little eye holes cut out.”</p><p>El sniffled but eventually wrinkled her nose and let out a little giggle. “How come?”</p><p>“Well, picture it with me,” Hop encouraged gently. “When he looks like that, does he seem so scary anymore?”</p><p>Another sniffle, and it took a second, but then she shook her head no.</p><p>“And instead of something that might hurt someone, now he’s holding…hmm, what should he be holding?” Hopper asked, hoping to engage her a little more.</p><p>El thought about it for a moment. “A- kitten?” she hiccupped.</p><p>“Yeah,” Hop smiled in agreement. “A fuzzy orange kitten. Or maybe a whole basket of little kittens, and oh shoot! There’s too many, and one of them is getting away!”</p><p>“And…if he tries to hurt anyone…instead of blood, we’re filled up with…Skittles,” she decided with a smile.</p><p>Okay, maybe her dreams were a little more morbid than he realized, but at least she was getting the idea; Skittles pouring out of a wound certainly sounded less scary than blood.</p><p>“Yeah, sounds delicious,” Hopper agreed with a laugh.</p><p>El let out a shaky exhale, though she didn’t release the fabric of his shirt that she still had clenched tightly in her hand. The silly images helped for a few moments, but not enough to the point in which she would agree to go back to bed on her own.</p><p>Hopper sighed and settled in on the couch aiming to get comfortable, as it seemed they may be there for a little while. El adjusted her position too, turning around to wrap her arms around his back, her chest pressed against his. She glanced up at him once as if to check if this was okay. He pulled the blanket off the back of the couch and tucked it around her, silently telling her that it was.</p><p>El eventually let out a huge exhale and tucked her face against his neck. He could feel her eyelashes fluttering against his skin, until eventually her breathing deepened, and he knew without even having to check that she was asleep.</p><p>He stayed with her on the couch until he thought he may fall asleep too. He had to get her into bed before they both woke up with sore necks and a headache. He tucked an arm under her backside carefully, trying not to wake her up as he stood up. He legs dangled from his arms as he carried her to her room. Her covers were in a pile at the end of her bed where she had unintentionally thrown them in her fitful sleep. Hopper laid her down in bed, delicately prying her hand from its grip on his shirt.  </p><p>And though he tried hard to do all of this without waking her up, the second he pulled away, she sat up with a startled gasp, the immediate look of betrayal on her face.</p><p>“Kid, it’s really late okay. It’s time to lay down and close your eyes,” he spoke softly, turning her lamp off before she was too awake.</p><p>“But- my tummy hurts,” she said suddenly.</p><p>The timing of her complaint seemed a little suspicious, and he couldn’t tell if she was telling the truth or just trying to manipulate him into staying awake longer. She <em>had</em> eaten way too much candy earlier that night before he finally cut her off.</p><p>“Your tummy hurts?”</p><p>She nodded and moved to the edge of her bed, intent on not laying down.</p><p>“Okay, I’ll get you some medicine. Hold on,” he sighed, feeling like this night would never end.</p><p>Hopper poured half of the plastic medicine cup full of Pepto. Even if she wasn’t telling the truth, this wouldn’t hurt.</p><p>“Here kid,” he said when he returned. El made a face but drank all the liquid and handed the cup back. “It’s really time for bed now.”</p><p>“You can sleep right here?” El asked, scooting over, pointing to the extra space on her bed.</p><p>It was so out of character, but Hopper was feeling a little too soft and guilty to argue.</p><p>And this <em>was </em>his fault.</p><p>He shouldn’t have let her watch so many hours of movies that would of course lead to nightmares.</p><p>“Sure, yeah,” he agreed to El’s surprise. “I can stay here until you fall asleep, alright?”</p><p>El eagerly nodded.</p><p>Hopper climbed on her bed, and El immediately curled up on her side next to him. He lifted his arm from between them and wrapped it around her, trying not to get too entangled like they did on the couch or else he would end up here all night.</p><p>“Get some sleep now, okay?”</p><p>“Mm-hm,” El promised nodding, though it was easier said than done.</p><p>She still had something big weighing on her mind, and eventually, she felt relaxed and comfortable enough to ask about it.</p><p>“Papa?” she questioned, in a near whisper.</p><p>For a moment, Hopper’s heart dropped wondering if she believed that it was him here with her now as she drifted off to sleep. He could never blame her for an accident like that. Brenner was probably the only adult to ever show her the slightest form of affection her entire life, no matter how manipulative it was. He pulled away ever so slightly to look down at her and saw that she was actually still wide awake and very in control of her words.</p><p>“Papa is gone… and not coming back,” she tried again.</p><p>It was a statement, but he could hear the hesitation and question in her words.</p><p>Realization suddenly clicked.</p><p>El hadn’t been scared of Jason Voorhees coming back to life to hurt her.</p><p>She was terrified of <em>Brenner</em>.</p><p>“Yes, he’s gone. He can’t hurt you anymore,” Hopper instantly promised, pulling her a little closer, while even more guilt tugged at his subconscious.</p><p>He didn’t know for sure that Brenner was dead. In fact, almost all the evidence he’d seen pointed to him still being out there somewhere.</p><p>But what was he supposed to do?</p><p>Tell the kid that yeah…if Brenner found out you were here, he might try to come snatch you up in the middle of the night, just like you are worried about.</p><p>While he grappled with himself over the lie, it was the only reassurance El needed to hear. She let out a relieved exhale and snuggled up closer to him.</p><p>“Thank you for staying. I’m not scared to close my eyes when you’re here,” she whispered sleepily, letting out a big yawn.</p><p>“No problem kid,” Hopper eventually managed to reply.</p><p>El would have no idea how hard those words hit him, though after hearing her say that, he immediately knew there was zero chance of leaving her bed tonight.</p><p>He tightened his arm around her, and eventually they both fell asleep.</p><p>…<em>Brenner. El. Blood. So much blood. Sara. Pale. Cold. Helpless. He was helpless. Gone. No…</em></p><p>Hopper woke with a startle in a cold sweat to a weight across his stomach. It was still dark, and he couldn’t have been asleep that long.</p><p>El was sitting on top him, her legs straddling both sides of his stomach. Her eyebrows were pulled together in concern but softened when Hopper made eye contact with her. He must have appeared very confused and upset because her hand landed on his cheek, her fingertips gently stroking his skin.</p><p>“It’s okay,” she whispered, laying down on top of him, as if she were there to protect him now. “It’s okay,” El repeated confidently.</p><p>She curled her head up against the crook of his neck, the faint exhale of her breath tickling his skin. Her hand tightened around his arm again, her thumb softly stroking him. Before Hopper could form an apology for waking her up, they were both back to sleep.</p><p>The next time Hopper woke up, it was morning. He opened his eyes and found El passed out haphazardly across him. He felt an instant moment of unexplained solace when he saw her, despite the mess of little arms and legs jabbing him uncomfortably. He kicked his legs out of the warm blankets, unintentionally waking her up.</p><p>“Sorry, kid. Didn’t mean to wake you up,” he apologized, as she climbed off.</p><p>She sat up next to him, yawning while she stretched her arms. “It’s okay,” she shrugged and smiled.</p><p>Hopper felt another fleeting moment of something he couldn’t explain when she said that. He didn’t have much time to consider what it could be, as El was already climbing out of bed.</p><p>“Can we have triple decker eggos for breakfast?!” she asked excitedly from her bedroom doorway.  </p>
  </div></div>
</body>
</html>